Warrior Dead
by Tea Elembeteg
Summary: Aderyn Herondale's parents and brother were dead, and she had no where else to go besides the Cardiff Institute. Little did she know that Es and Niccolo would make it her new home with their love. Set in 1877.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

DISCLAIMER: I do not own _The Infernal De__vices_ or the poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, but I did create Ade, Es, Niccolo, Elizabeth, Lucas, Cadoc, and Elizabeth.

This is about William Herondale's cousin, Aderyn, whose parents have died and she's forced to live in the Cardiff Institute. She never expects to find a home there, but she does, with Niccolo and Es (her parabatai). Es is modeled after one of my friends, whose username is x-LiveFantasy-x.

I hope you like the story!

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><p><strong><span>Chapter 1<span>**

_ Home they brought her warrior dead: _  
><em>She nor swooned, nor uttered cry: <em>  
><em>All her maidens, watching, said, <em>  
><em>'She must weep or she will die.' <em>_  
><em>

_-Lord Alfred Tennyson_

I was not like most people. I guess that's obvious, though. I mean, on the surface, there was nothing unusual, my chin length blond hair, and my dark blue-violet eyes. The difference was on the inside, and anyone I let get close enough took one look and ran the other way.

The first exception to that rule was Es. Estelle Florence Thrushcross was the only one who stuck around, because she cared about me more than herself. I can still remember her Mediterranian looks, the long curly black hair and the green eyes that shone with a love and light I knew I would never deserve.

My name is Aderyn Herondale, but most people called me Ade. Es was my _parabatai, _and I loved her more than anyone, even my family. She pulled me through everything, and I know as a matter of fact that I wouldn't still be alive if she hadn't stayed with me that night in December, the first night she met me.

I think the exact date was December 21st, 1877. Es and I were both fifteen. I was staying in the Institute in Cardiff, and so was she. I was pacing inside my room, and I remember the softness of her knock on the door. If I listen close, I can still hear it if I try.

When I stalked over and opened it, that was the first time I saw her face. And it was also the first time I saw Niccolo's face, too, because he was right behind her. I was a newcomer, and they wanted to welcome me. I wanted to spit in their faces for taking me away from my home. Little did I know, that place would become my _new _home. A home that was better than the one I had before.

Es's voice was light when she introduced herself. "My name is Estelle Thrushcross, and everyone calls me Es, though, and I would prefer if you called me that, too. And this is Niccolo Cartwright. I understand that you are Miss Herondale?"

"Ade," I muttered.

"Excuse me?" Niccolo asked, not understanding.

"My Christian name is Aderyn, but I go by Ade. So, if we are going to be 'family'"—I remember I spit thay word out as if it was poison—"then I would rather you call me that, Mr. Cartwright."

He smiled, and it caught my breath, against my will. He had gorgeous black, curly hair, and eyes as blue as the sky. He shot his grin at Es. "I wonder how long it's going to take to convince Ade that she should just call us by our Christian names, because whether she wants it or not, she's going to be here a while."

I just grumbled when Es smiled slightly. "You'll like it here, I promise. The food's great, and Cadoc and Elizabeth aren't too bad, either. They just like things in order." Cadoc and Elizabeth Aldertree were the head of the Cardiff Institute, and they were also in their early fourties, without any children. When Es and Niccolo had come to my door, we had only met once, and they had been kind if not a bit detacted seeming.

I didn't mind, though. It was better for me.

"Well, Miss Thrushcross and Mr. Cartwright, if you don't mind—" I had started.

Niccolo groaned. "Oh, no. Don't say you'd prefer to be alone. I mean, its bad enough that you insist on calling us Mr. Cartwright and Miss Thrushcross, but now you skip out on the complementary tour of Cardiff? I mean, we do it whenever someone new comes to this Institute."

Es frowned at Niccolo, then. And I remember wanting to laugh because Niccolo looked pretty scared. When Es frowned, it meant the worst was coming. When Es was mad at you, she could really make you pay for it. "If Ade doesn't want to come she's not required to."

I sighed, next, because I knew I was going to give in. "Fine. I'll go." We donned our outerwear, and Niccolo called for a carriage.

The driver's name was Lucas and he seemed very kind. He didn't whip the horses or anything of the like. He was a year or two older than us, and he was handsome. I saw Es blushed when he addressed her, and I hid a smirk. Es had a crush on Lucas.

It seemed that everyone at the Institute called each other by their Christian names. No one, other than my parents and my brother had ever called me by my Christian name.

Speaking of our parents, I wondered why Es and Niccolo were here. They weren't orphans, were they? They didn't seem like orphans.

My father had gone missing when I was six, only a few months after the accident that made me like I was: different. And my mother and brother were murdered last month. I found their bodies, on the floor in the dining room. My brother had been seven years old. I was the only one who knew exactly what killed them. That was why I burned our house down.

So that's why I was at the Institute, because I had nowhere else to go. And it was nobody's fault but mine.


	2. Chapter 2: The Partial Truth

**Chapter 2**

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Niccolo asked me, upon arriving back at the Institute.

I shake my head, but don't really answer. The city was wonderful, and it reminded me of home.

Too much of my home, though.

Suddenly a pounding pain spreads through my head. I was afraid this would happen. The whole time while travelling around the city I was worried I would double over in pain. I clutch my head and try not to scream, or groan. I squeeze my eyes shut and from the darkness behind my eyelids I hear a whimper escape my mouth.

My eyes flash open for a brief second and I see Es' eyes rush to my face and Niccolo is moving toward me. My eyes snap shut before he reaches me.

He grasps my elbow and guides me to sit on my bed. "Are you alright, Ade?"

I shake my head and mumble, "I'm prone to headaches, migraines, the like. This is normal for me, Mr. Cartwright."

Niccolo sighed, and I knew it was because I hadn't used his Christian name. "Ade… do you want me to get Elizabeth or Cadoc?"

My hand shot out to catch his wrist and I briefly opened my eyes. "_No!" _Calming down, I shook my head and closed my eyes again, and placed my head in my hands. "No, that is not necessary. I shall be fine."

Es sat down next to me on the bed. "Do you want an _iratze_? I'm particularly good at those."

I shook my head again. "I'm sure you are, and thanks for asking, but the _iratzes _never work. This is an affliction caused by… demons, I suppose you could say. No runes work. Not even the Silent Brothers could figure out why it happens." _Good thing too, as they would probably kill me. _The words went unspoken.

"Do you have medication?" Es asked placing her hand on my shoulder. I resisted the urge to shrug it off.

"Burned, along with my mother and brother, and everything else I owned."

Es almost gasped. "Dear God, that's horrible."

"Tell me about it. That's why I'm here."

Niccolo said, "My parents and Luc's parents—he's my cousin—died while defending the Shadowhunters."

I looked up at him, quickly. "Mr. Blacker is your cousin? Then how is he—"

"Human? My grandfather left the Clave for a human. My father decided to join when he was nine, and his brother didn't. My father married a Shadowhunter, Luc's didn't. He wanted to join the Clave, because he had the Sight, but the most he could get was a job as a driver for us. Not that he minds. He loves the horses."

"But Clave blood is dominant."

"Not after three generations of humans."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Luckily, Es was fast to tell her story.

"My parents died when I was young. They drowned on a raid on faeries. My brother, who is five years my senior, went off to travel the world when he turned eighteen, leaving me here. He comes back in two weeks."

"So you get out of here?" I asked Es.

"Yes."

My vision went red as pain shot through my head. I heard myself scream and I felt my nails dig into my head as I doubled over. I heard a stream of curses, in Welsh, and I knew they came from me. Es clutched my arm as a sob racked through me. The pain had never gotten this bad before.

I heard the door open and close as Niccolo left. A moment later I was still writhing in pain, and Elizabeth crouched next to me, examining my face.

I barely heard what she was saying, but I caught, "Get a cloth… Cold water… pupils dilating… supposedly happens quite a lot… pass out… infirmary…"

I struggled to keep my eyes open, but it wasn't a battle I could win. The last things I heard were a loud crack, then laughing. Loud laughing, that mocked me.

The same thing I'd heard before I'd passed out the first time, when I was six, the day my father disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3: The Awakening

Hi, guys! Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate it. Sorry this chapter is so short. I've been really busy. Hopefully next week will be better...

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

"She should be just fine."

"I know, Elizabeth, it's just… I worry."

"Estelle, you're no use to her exhausted. Or dead."

"Hush yourself, Elizabeth. I think she's waking up."

I cracked open one of my eyes, and a stabbing pain ran through my head. I didn't make a sound though, and I didn't shut my eyes again. The pain subsided after a second. I opened both my eyes, and struggled to sit up.

I was in a white room, on a metal frame bed with white sheets. Everything was so white it hurt my head—the only place I could be was the Infirmary in the Institute. Next to my bed in an armchair was Es, and lounging on the arm of the chair was Niccolo, and Elizabeth stood as straight as a soilder at the foot of my bed.

"Can I have something to eat?" I asked.

Elizabeth left to get the cook, and Niccolo looked like he wanted to slap me. "You've been unconcious for four hours, and the first thing you want to know is if you can eat? You're insane, you must be."

I held back a bitter smile. "I know what happened. You are all dying to know though, aren't you? Elizabeth didn't tell you what she knows—which isn't much, by the way—and you like to pry. I'm hungry, anyway."

Niccolo frowned and asked, "What did happen?"

Es glowered at Niccolo, and it dawned on me that he was probably the one who made her frown like that the most often. "She doesn't have to tell us if she doesn't want to."

"I'd prefer to know," Niccolo said.

I sighed, and responded before Es could chop his head off. "Some people have nose bleeds a lot. I get headaches and I pass out."

"But you said a demon caused it."

"Technically, I guess it did. A demon took something from me that causes the headaches. People aren't supposed to be able to live without this… thing, and yet I can."

"Why?"

"That's _enough, _Niccolo." Es was fuming.

Niccolo was about to respond when Elizabeth came back, deposited a blueberry muffin on my plate, said "Some people are here to see you," and left, letting the visitors in.

They were both boys about a year older than me, Niccolo's age. The first one had hair as black as midnight and indigo eyes that matched mine. The second had silver hair and silver eyes. I wondered how they had gotten like that.

The silver eyed boy spoke first. "I am Jem Carstairs, and this is my parabatai—"

"William Herondale," The boy with black hair said. William threw himself into the armchair on the opposite side of the bed Niccolo and Es were on. "And you're Aderyn Herondale. We're cousins."

"I know," I responded, with a bit of sarcasm. "I figured that when you introduced yourself." I frowned a bit. "My father used to talk about his brother, the brother that left the Clave."

"Yes, well, that was my father."

"I got that too, _pen bach." _It meant small head in Welsh.

Jem laughed as Will frowned. "Did she just call you something insulting in Welsh?" Jem asked.

"I think she did," Will responded with annoyance laced through his words.

"Well, William, it seems you've met your match. Maybe even your superior." Jem couldn't hold in his snickers.

"Oh, I am very superior," I said with a blinding smile that was all arrogance. "I am superior to everyone."

"Oh, really?" Will asked. "Is that why your in an Infirmary bed?"

I snarled at Will. "Mind your business, cousin. You have no idea what my family has gone though, what _I've_ gone through. I found my mother and brother—who was _seven_—murdered on the floor of my dining room. And then the next thing I knew, the whole place was on fire." It wasn't technically a lie. I just omitted the part where I was the one who burnt it down, lighting a log in the middle of the kitchen.

Will looked taken aback. He didn't say anything while Jem stated, "We are very sorry for your loss. William just wanted to… come see what you knew about something. Something that happened to you when you were six."

My eyes grew wide. I quickly shook my head and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I think you do," Will said quietly with an unexpected tenderness.

I sighed, closed my eyes, and massaged my temples. "Niccolo, Es, could you please step out of the room for the moment?"

"But—" Niccolo started before Es grabbed his arm and dragged him off.

"What do you want to know?" I whispered. I knew Will and Jem both heard me despite the pitch of my voice.

Jem cleared his throat and said, "What are you comfortable with telling us?"

A bitter smile grew on my face and I leaned my head back on the metal frame of the bed, my eyes still closed. "You must be joking. I'm not comfortable with telling you any of it, but you want to know." I opened my eyes. "I trust you, both of you. I'll tell you the reason I'm in this bed: something was stolen from me, something important. It causes me to have horrible headaches and to pass out in pain. My father tried to… cure me. To get back what was stolen. Then he went missing. Then my brother and mother died. And now, I'm here."

Will got quiet. "You know what killed your family, don't you?"

I nodded. "My father is dead, my mother is dead, my brother is dead. All because of me."

"Your father is dead? How do you know? You said he went missing," Jem said.

The bitter smile turned into a cruel one. "It would have never let him live. He died, I know it."

Jem looked away from my deranged gaze, but Will just kept staring at me. And then I realized something.

Will was like me. Will was _cursed._

I suppose all we Herondale are the same, aren't we.


End file.
